Lionel soon marched against O'Brien of Munster and defeated him; on which occasion, he created many knights among the English of blood and of birth.-Not long subsequently, he removed the exchequer to Carlow, and expended a sum of five hundred pounds in walling that town.* He performed many other acts of a beneficial character, by which the clergy and laity of the time were so much gratified that they presented him with two years profit of their lands and tithes, to enable him more vigorously to prosecute the war in Ireland. Indeed one feels somewhat of satisfaction, on meeting the records of a chief governor, who seems to have acted with judgment, energy, decision, and promptitude, in which many of his predecessors appear to have been lamentably deficient. But men of the high endowments of Edward III., and of his son, are not often to be encountered.-The duke of Clarence proceeded to England on the 22nd of April, 1364, and returned to his government on the 8th of December following.†

The evils of Ireland, the neglect of the English government,. the intestine feuds of the settlers, had been of long continuance ; and no individual, however gifted, could, in a short space of time, check the current of events, or heal the disorders of the country. In short, to such a height had the power of the Irish (MacMorrough Kavanaghs, and others) arisen, in the thirty-seventh year of Edward III., that the more distant districts of the pale were in some instances relinquished, and in the rest, with difficulty retained. An order appears in our records of that year-Pro barrio amovendo a Catherlogh usque ad Dublin-for removing the barrier from, Carlow to Dublin.‡ Thus the works erected by Lionel, duke of Clarence, at Carlow, proved totally useless; inasmuch as the retention of that place was no longer possible.

A.D. 1367. This year, being the fortieth of the king's reign, a famous parliament was assembled at Kilkenny, by Lionel, duke of Clarence. This distinguished personage perceived, that the lords and gentlemen of the king's territories in many instances began to degenerate, and adopt the Irish laws and customs; and, in order to remedy the disastrous consequences, already apparent, of this inclination of the settlers, and prevent its further continuance, he caused certain laws to be enacted, which have been since styled the statutes of Kilkenny. We notice this important event, as it fully declares the state of our district at the time; on which subject, much evidence of its unhappy circumstances has been already adduced.- "In the fortieth year of his reign," says Sir John Davies, "king Edward held that famous parliament at Kilkenny, wherein many notable laws were enacted, which do show and lay open (for the law doth best discover enormities) how much the English colonies were corrupted at that time, and do infallibly prove that which is laid down before: that they were wholly degenerate, and fallen away from their obedience. For first it appeareth by the preamble of these laws, that the English of this realm, before the

Chron. of Ir. Cox. † Borlase. v. 2. p. 393.

Grose's Antiq.- Anthol. Hib.

coming over of Lionel, duke of Clarence, were at that time become mere Irish in their language, names, apparel, and all their manner of living, and had rejected the English laws and submitted themselves to the Irish, with whom they had made many marriages and alliances, which tended to the utter ruin and destruction of the commonwealth."

:

The statutes enacted on this occasion were to the following purport: that the Brehon (or old Irish) law is an evil custom, and the use of it be deemed treason: that marriage, nursing, and gossipred with the Irish, be treason: that the use of Irish names, apparel, or language, be punished with forfeiture of lands or imprisonment, until the party give security to conform to English customs; that the settlers should not make war upon the Irish without the order of the state: that the English should not permit the Irish to graze upon their land: nor present an Irishman to an ecclesiastical benefice: nor receive them into monasteries or religious houses: nor entertain any of their minstrels, rhymers, or news tellers: nor cess horse or foot upon the English subject on pain of felony and that sheriffs might enter any liberty or franchise to apprehend felons, or traitors and that four wardens of the peace should be appointed in every county, to assess every man's equal proportion of the public charge for men and armour.-These laws may seem severe, but we should first consider the circumstances which extorted them. In short, the very existence of this country as an appendage to the English crown, seemed the matter in question. So long as those enactments were observed, a visible amelioration of the country took place; but shortly after the departure of the duke of Clarence, an infraction of some of them, by the great lords, (Kildare, Ormonde, and Desmond), was unceremoniously made.* As regards the Irish, the statutes of Kilkenny were a mere nullity; for they were governed by their own laws till the reign of James I.

In 1369, the rebels of Leinster were vigorously opposed by Sir William de Windsor, lord deputy.

On the 3rd day of December, 1371, king Edward III. granted to the prior of the Carmelite monastery at Leighlin-bridge, the sum of ten marks yearly, for the repairing and rebuilding of their house. In 1375, Alan was prior of this establishment. A renewal of the grant of ten marks per annuni was made in 1377.†

The priory of St. Stephen, at Old Leighlin, being situated in a depopulated and wasted country, and the prior having given refuge and succour to the king's good subjects in this neighbourhood, and intending to pursue that laudable practice, Edward III. therefore, granted them a concordatum on the 1st of May, 1372.‡

A.D. 1376. James, earl of Ormond, lord justice. During his administration, the counties, cities, and boroughs of Ireland sent commissioners to the king to represent the state of that kingdom, and consult on the means of its improvement. Edward III. subMonas. Hib.

⚫ Finglas.

† Archdall. Monas. Hib.

L

sequently issued a writ to the lord justice and chancellor, ordering them to levy the reasonable expenses of these commissioners on the respective places from which they were chosen.

King Edward III. died at Shene in Surrey, on the 21st day of June, 1377; in the sixty-fourth year of his age, and fifty-first of his reign. He ranks among the wisest and most powerful kings that have ruled the British dominions. His career was, generally speaking, one of great glory and brilliancy; but when we turn to Ireland, we are warned, that, no unmixed eulogium can be bestowed upon his government. The details of the local history just recounted, sufficiently evince the melancholy state of the kingdom; while the simple fact, that the revenue derived from Ireland did not exceed £10,000 per annum, more fully evidences the feeble, ill-supported and defective condition of the king's authority in this country.

CHAP. X.

Reign of Richard II. A.D. 1377, to A.D. 1399.

RICHARD II., only son of Edward, (commonly called the Black Prince), eldest son of Edward III., was declared heir to the throne by his grand-father. The age of the young king, (being but eleven years), rendered assistance indispensable; the protection of the crown and kingdom was entrusted to his uncles.

Beauchamp, earl of Warwick, was director of public affairs in the early part of this reign; when a severe tax was levied on all Irish absentees, except such as had reasonable cause for non-residence. This statute was revived in 1392.

A.D. 1378. In consideration of the great labour, burden, and expense, which the friars of the Carmelite monastery of Leighlinbridge had previously, and did at this time sustain in supporting their house, and the bridge contiguous thereto, against the king's enemies; he did, on the 13th of March, in this year, grant to the priors thereof, an annual pension of twenty marks out of the rents of the town of Newcastle of Lyons. This grant was again confirmed by the king, February 20th, 1394.*

John Young, bishop of Leighlin, expended a large sum in repairs of the episcopal houses in his manors; but in 1376, eight years before his death, he was plundered of all his goods by the rebels. He died towards the close of the year 1384, having governed the see upwards of twenty-one years; during which time he was made deputy to Alexander Balscot, bishop of Meath,

Monas. Hib.

treasurer of Ireland; as he had been before in the year 1366, to John Troy, who was also treasurer of this kingdom.

John Griffin was advanced from the chancellorship of Limerick to the bishopric of Leighlin, in 1385; which he directed for a period of thirteen years, and was then by the pope translated to the see of Ossory; having been before, (viz. in 1391) made chancellor of the exchequer by the king. He enjoyed the bishopric of Ossory only a short time. While he held the see of Leighlin, Richard II. issued a writ in his favour, dated the 25th August, 1389, to this effect that the diocese of Leighlin being so much devastated by the Irish enemies, as to render it impossible for the bishop to reside within it, he, therefore, granted him the village of Galroestown, in the county of Dublin, near the marches of O'Toole, an Irish enemy, with all its appurtenances, (being then part of the temporalities of the see of Killaloe, and then in the king's hands, during the vacancy by the death of the late bishop, predecessor to the present, who is a mere Irishman, abiding among the Irish enemies, and not amenable to law or government); to hold by the said bishop of Leighlin, as long as from that cause, the said village should continue in the king's hands. Under this custodiam he held Galroestown until September, 1391; when Mathew MacCragh was restored to the temporalities of Killaloe, having been deprived. of them upwards of two years from the time of his advancement."

Being taunted by foreign powers with the weakness of his authority and government in Ireland, Richard resolved to proceed to that country, in person, and effect the complete conquest of it. On the 2nd day of October, 1394, he landed at Waterford, with a large military force. The Irish, unable to oppose so formidable an army in the field, resolved on ready submission to the king. Thomas Mowbray, earl of Nottingham, and earl marshal of England, was, in consequence, appointed to receive their homage and oaths of fidelity. An open field at Ballygorey, near Carlow, was the place selected for this purpose; when Malachias O'Morrough, Arthur Mac Morrough, Girald O'Birne, Donald O'Nolan, and others, swore fealty before the earl marshal, laying aside their girdles, skeins, and caps, and falling on bended knee. The ceremony being concluded, the marshal gave each of them the osculum pacis. In addition to the foregoing, they were bound in great penalties, (O'Nolan, for instance, in ten thousand pounds,) not only to continue loyal subjects, but that on a prescribed day, they and all their followers should relinquish all the lands and possessions held by them in Leinster into the king's hands; and, reserving their moveable goods, should serve him in the field against the other rebels. In consideration of which, the king agreed to grant them pay and pensions during life, and full possession of all such lands as they should seize from his enemies in any other part of the realm. A pension of eighty marcs per annum was then betowed on Art MacMorrough, chief of the Kavanaghs; which

* Harris's Ware.

was continued to his family till the time of Henry VIII., although, it has been observed, that they performed but very few services for it.*

Hardly, however, had the king departed from Ireland, when the Irish threw away the mask of humility, and assumed as bold a tone of independence as if none of the late arrangements had been effected.

By an inquisition taken in the eighteenth year of this king, it appears, that Sir John Carew died seized of the barony of Idrone, anno 36 Edward III., and that, Sir Leonard Carew at his decease, 43rd year of that king, had possession of it; but that upon the death of Sir Leonard, MacMorrough, otherwise Kavanagh, chief of his name, possessed himself of the said barony, and (as the inquisition declares) held it manu forti, by a strong hand. Thus it would seem, that at this period the English land-owners were almost totally dispossessed in our county; a circumstance which can excite no surprise, when we consider the small share of personal attention paid by them to their estates, and the general imbecility of the government.

It is stated by a writer in the Anthologia Hibernica, that in 1397, the castle of Carlow was seized by Donald Mac Art Kavanagh, chief of the Mac Morroughs; but I cannot find this substantiated by any ancient writer.

Richard Rocomb, or, as some style him, Bokum, a Dominican friar, was consecrated bishop of Leighlin in 1399; though Bernard Jonghe states that he was not advanced to the see till the year 1400. During his government, the town of Old Leighlin was inhabited by eighty-six burgesses; but was subsequently so much harrassed and plundered by the Irish, that in the seventeenth century, this flourishing town was reduced to the state of " a very sorry village," containing nothing worthy of notice excepting the cathedral and episcopal house. §

Determined now to effect a perfect subjugation of the kingdom and punish the delinquent Irish, Richard again embarked for Ireland, and landed at Waterford on the 1st of June, 1399. He marched to Dublin through the districts possessed by the Morroughs, Kavanaghs, Birnes and Tools; but, his army being much distressed for provisions and means of conveyance through the uncultivated country, he performed no action worthy particular notice, with the exception of the very useful labour of felling timber and clearing the highways in Kavanagh's country. It is worthy of note, that Henry, son of the duke of Lancaster, (afterwards the distinguished Henry V.), was now knighted by Richard for his services against the Irish.-The state of affairs in England compelled the speedy return of the king.

Richard II. resigned the crown on Michaelmas day, 1399. |

• Cox. Hib. Ang, vol. i. § Ware.

+ Harris's Hibernica. # Vol. 2. p.

393.